MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - the need for a new e-book format

Steven Lyle Jordan · 07-20-2011, 09:23 AM

Unfortunately for typesetting fans, ebooks are not designed to adhere to the old notions of "pretty type." Ebooks are designed to distill books down to their base content, the words, and to make them flexible on many platforms at once... not to lock them into one image that will look good on one device or printed page, but not another.

This is why HTML is (at this time) the best choice for ebooks: It is flexible across all digital platforms, when properly used.

Personally, there have been one or two times when I wished TeX had been better incorporated into HTML for daily use... but even in the limited ways that TeX-like HTML could be applied, it was rarely supported by browsers, making it pointless to apply it.

Out of curiosity, what type of books are you looking to convert to digital formats? Are they graphic novels? Are the symbols available within HTML, or not?

07-20-2011, 09:23 AM	#3
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	Unfortunately for typesetting fans, ebooks are not designed to adhere to the old notions of "pretty type." Ebooks are designed to distill books down to their base content, the words, and to make them flexible on many platforms at once... not to lock them into one image that will look good on one device or printed page, but not another. This is why HTML is (at this time) the best choice for ebooks: It is flexible across all digital platforms, when properly used. Personally, there have been one or two times when I wished TeX had been better incorporated into HTML for daily use... but even in the limited ways that TeX-like HTML could be applied, it was rarely supported by browsers, making it pointless to apply it. Out of curiosity, what type of books are you looking to convert to digital formats? Are they graphic novels? Are the symbols available within HTML, or not? Last edited by Steven Lyle Jordan; 07-20-2011 at 09:32 AM.